How to Launch a Successful Podcast for Your Business

How to Launch a Successful Podcast for Your Business

Over the years, podcasting has grown its popularity and according to Washington Post:

the number of unique monthly podcast listeners has tripled to 75 million from 25 million five years ago,

Considering the fact that podcast has now become one of the few marketing material business must have in order to potentially increase your audience and drive-in traffic to your website. And if you don’t have one, this article is meant for you.

HOW PODCASTING ACTUALLY WORKS?

Podcasting is particularly similar to hosting your very own talk show where you can discuss niche topics regarding a certain product or industry. Technically as Yaro Starak has defined it,

The word “Podcasting” is a portmanteau combining the words “broadcasting” and “iPod”.

Similar to blogging, podcasting works best when you get to acquire as many subscribers as you can that shares the same interest in the topics you cover from time to time. It may not be a marketing requirement but it is a valuable material to grow any kind of industry or business. If you’re still confused you may look into Nerdist Podcast Channel to get an idea how podcasting works.

WHAT DOES IT TAKE TO CREATE YOUR OWN SUCCESSFUL PODCAST?

Before we begin scrolling down the factors needed to put up a successful podcast, always remember that podcasting may not require a lot of money and technical knowledge but it takes a lot of time and planning.

These Are 5 Most Certain Factors You Should Consider Before Getting Into Podcasting

#1: CHOOSE AN INTERESTING TOPIC

Podcasting is just as simple as creating your own blog. Before you even say anything you will have to choose the main topic, subtopics and what your audience should know about regarding that certain topic. It is a very important factor considering that when you do podcasting you should also act as a mentor and an influencer.

Know the topics you will have for each of the episodes and plan on the next and so on. Be sure that it is within your expertise and if not, you may invite someone that is an expert in that area instead for a question and answer episodes.

Quick tip! You may search trending topics in the social media that you can relate to your industry or business then add in your opinion. Listen to your competitor’s podcast and extend your topics to what you know that they don’t talk about. If you are just starting up, offer free coaching if you can or online programs or any trials of your service or products.

#2: FORMAT AND STRUCTURE YOUR PODCAST EPISODES

The next important step to focus on is to format and structure your podcast episodes.

The first thing you should consider is the length of you podcast episodes. An in-depth topic could last for about 30-45 minutes or may take an hour and longer than that could be a bit much for the audience but always make sure to make it consistent as part of your strategy in structuring your podcast. The best approach you can do to promote your service or product is to host it yourself.

There are lots of structures you can do for a podcast episode:

Solo – you can do storytelling or teach or point out your opinion about a certain topic.

Interview – have some conversation with experts or feature popular people in a question and answer episode.

With a Co-host – banter a topic with another host could bring a better conversation.

Combination – You can schedule and plan to do all these along the way but it is better to be consistent with the episodes you do.

Quick tip! Imagine this, your audience will take time in getting used to and when they do, it’s better to stick to a program in which your approach and episode length are consistent at all times. In that way, you can build a reputation and consistency. TV shows and radio is a good example.

#3:EQUIPMENT AND PLATFORMS TO USE

Equipment:

When you get serious about podcasting you will need to equip yourself with some good equipment that will give your episode the best audio for the audience.

Quick tip! You may also use ID3 Editor for editing ID3 tags. It can run on both MAC and Windows OS.

#5:PROMOTE YOUR PODCAST

Finally, when your podcast is up and broadcasting live it’s time for you to promote it. Use all sorts of social media platforms that you have. Post links that will lead the audiences to your podcast and encourage people to take some time to listen to it.

Here are a few ideas from EOFire to get you started:

If you’re doing an interview-based show, email your guest with a reminder the day of and ask if they’ll help share it with their audience;

Create a show notes page that you can direct people to in order to increase traffic to your website (that’s where people can find out more about you and what else you have to offer);

Get social: promote your episode on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, Instagram… choose the top 1 or 2 social platforms you know your listeners are on and use a scheduling tool like Hootsuite or MeetEdgar to start promoting your show;

Take your audio and create a YouTube video so you can share on YouTube.

Repurposing your content when it comes to audio is not only simple, it can also be very beneficial since everyone likes to consume content in different ways and on different platforms.Quick tip! There’s also a scheduling tool you can use that includes podcasting like CoSchedule.

I hope this article helps and always remember that it may not be successful the first time, you do it so try recording first 4-5 episodes and see how it goes. Happy podcasting!